ridiculous rating

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I'd never heard of this man, or his restaurant, and I live here in NYC, but this movie really leaves me wishing I had someone to experience Corton with."I'm not a nut case. I'm an artist," Paul says early in the film, and that's the theme here...He expresses himself, down to his signature, in food, and along the way he both inspires and rides herd on his apostle-like staff."What stories am I telling here?" he asks as he composes a tasting menu and it's not even a tad pretentious. You want to savor his tales. The filmmaker seduces you in this portrait. You come to feel grateful to Drew Nierpont for having given Paul a berth and you are happy for the chef when he finds a cheerful and understanding woman to love. You rejoice with him when he gets his three stars from the Times and you wind up wishing him the best as he aspires to Michelin. He certainly has earned it...And now I know the place for my next super, extra-special occasion.

A Matters of Taste is a great little documentary from HBO films on Paul Liebrandt, the youngest chef ever to get a three star rating from the New York Times. The film follows Liebrandt from 2002 until the opening of his Corton restaurant in Tribeca in 2008...and the battle to impress the critics afterward.I had a blast with this. It's a wonderful portrait of a man and his food. I'm not a foodie, give me a burger and fries and I'm happy, but damn if his food doesn't look great. Of course some of it is things like "eels, violets and chocolate" or "Espuma of calf brains and foie gras", so I don't think I'll try it but it looks good.I don't know what else to say other than this is going to be on HBO on June 13th and should be on your list of things to see since it's really good.